Words and pictures are nothing more than just information that mimes the real world. As they are put in a way, Let me put it this way, my way.

Friday, March 14, 2008

For those being odexed

I am forwarding this call, to anyone reading this, do help to circulate this on your blog or any forum that you visits, thanks

Ware ware wa Celestial Being.

Oops, NG. Wrong start.

We are Xedo Defense.

I am one of the Odex'ed victims, whose names had been wrongfully indicted for copyright infringement.

Over the past month, we saw that the Judge ruled that Odex was not the correct party to initiate lawsuits. It is, therefore, my imperative to start out a roll-call for all those who have been served the letter from Odex, regardless of whether they had or had not paid any settlement fees. Supporters of the Anti-Odex movement are also appreciated.

I start out this thread, in the hopes of gathering all Odex'ed victims, to come out from their homes and contest in a legal suit against Odex. The odds are against Odex, and with your support, we can right the wrong, and prove ourselves that we are not to be trampled upon like cockroaches.

The reason I posted this thread is because I believed the time is right to act and pursue a recourse, to act against the actions Odex has pursued against what is potentially their customers.

This is not a call to support piracy: this is a call to make right what Odex has wronged. Odex has wronged us in many ways, labelling us as pirates and other negative connotations, all in the name of "defending the interests of copyright owners."

Without them, we still are able to enjoy anime, not through television, but by the Internet. The Internet has allowed us to be exposed in a myriad and variety of shows that would've otherwise been unknown in Singapore.

Before Bleach made its way to cable, we already enjoyed its goodness.Before Naruto became famous, we were light years ahead.Before all other anime shows become the third rated VCDs on the shelf, we had already knew them by heart.

At the heart of our fandom, is the freedom of information, and with it, the right to watch, not watch, like, and dislike, the shows that deserves our attention, and credit the people behind the shows.

What Odex had done is to disturb the cordial relationship between us fans and the creators of the shows. Without properly researching their legal rights, they made use of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (F.U.D.) over us, to make us feel "guilty" of our actions. To scare us about the struggling anime industry, citing figures from various sources to expound their claims of justifying the clampdown.

What they do is similar to RIAA, the infamous entity that has sued dead people and grandmothers for hefty somes of money. All over claims that are shaky in its foundation.

The worst sin they committed, is to sue a nine-year-old girl, forcing her parents to comply a Letter of Undertaking, a letter full of legalese that will confound an average Singaporean.

Another victim was wrongfully accused of infringement. The irony, was that at the time Odex stated he was doing so, he was physically out of Singapore. He has an alibi to accrue his credibility.

The company Odex used to target Singaporeans, BayTSP, is also of question. Another company of similar operations, MediaDefender, has been exposed and made famous online to use privacy-invasive tactics to interfere with otherwise legitimate Internet traffic. There are also statements from clients of BayTSP, admitting that their tactics are not always 100% effective. This has been examplified by their "mistakes" of sending cease & desist letters to people in France, the US and Japan.

We regret that Odex's website has been hacked into, and we deplore such acts. However, this shows how they backtrack on their promise of a video-on-demand service back in Oct 2007. They had not sufficiently secure their servers, and the long absence of Odex's website shows that they never intended to provide a service to us customers.

I think by saying all these, it's my objective to raise the collective voice of everyone affected by this and all those who felt that Odex has done a great wrong and injustice, to effectively set the record straight, and applaud businesses that are rooted in sound business realities. The money that has been used to pay the "settlement fees" are still left unanswered. Where are the audit reports, the claims of "sending the money over to charities?" We have not heard from them since Judge Woo's last ruling.

If by now, you still think that Odex is right, I will like to say that, they had been proven wrong time and again. The titles whom they choose to import has nothing to do with what the fans want, but by arbitrary choices. Their so-called "errors in translation" were done in the purpoted idea of censoring for conforming to Board of Film Censors' (BFC) standards, something which the BFC has publicly denounced. They have not made the transition to DVDs, even though the target audiences are increasingly clamour for it. Anecdotal accounts reflect their blase attitudes of unprofessionalism: they used fan-made subtitles and pass them off as their own. Will one actually tolerate a company that had committed all these foul practices and yet unrepentant of their wrong-doings to continue? The choice is now in your hand, to take up action against them or to lend your support to them, or be the silent accomplices of all the horrendous things inflicted by Odex.

Now it's the time to act. I have relayed this thread over to SGCafe, sgForums, HWZ Forums and VR-Zone Forums, to spread the message of a swift action. The time to hesitate is through, there's no time to wallow in the mire. Act now, and we show the world that Singapore otaku aren't to be trampled upon like beasts.

If you wish to join in this call for action, you may contact FND, member of the Xedo Defense, via email at aranril AT gmail DOT com, through http://theodexed.wordpress.com, or through the user that posted this call.

Those who have been Odex'ed, step out. Supporters, lend me your ears. To the public, we are serious.